I write to say congratulations to the 12 young ladies, many of them single mothers, who have accepted work digging trenches through rocks in the hot sun in Belize City to earn an honest living. Digging trenches through rocks with spade and pickax in the sun is backbreaking work, best suitable for men. Given the choice no parents would want to see their daughter or other female relatives doing that type of manual work, that could result in birth problems or other serious effects on their bodies down the road.

The fact that females have to accept that type of employment, speaks of the massive unemployment in the country or the huge difficulty in getting a job, especially among single mothers, who don’t have the benefit of a high school education.

By accepting backbreaking construction work to earn an honest living, the ladies on the Southside of the city have also struck a severe blow to an often repeated lie against them. The lie is: that Southside women,who are marginalized, are satisfied with a little $20.00 or $30.00 from a Minister once per week and have no interest in decent steady employment to care for their families.

The dozen Southside ladies who are digging trenches with spade and pickaxe would all love to be part of employment that is more suitable for females, such as working in restaurants, being clerks in stores, sewing garments, or being domestic workers. Due to the terrible state of the economy, however, such female jobs are scarce, like good cheese. The ladies therefore have no choice on whether to take up backbreaking construction work as they have to earn money to care for their families.

Each day the ladies from Southside toil digging trenches through rocks in the sun in Belize City, to make an honest living, should remind the government of the urgency of providing the 5,000 jobs it promised years ago.